Greetings from Minnesota

Hello,My name is Wagmore. I like Earl Gray (or is the preferred spelling 'Grey'?), Jasmine, porter beers and long walks on the beach. (Okay, the last one's a joke, sort of. Though, now that I think about it, walks on the beach are rather nice, aren't they?)

What brings me here is my search for a "good" organic Earl Gray: my problem is, all the organic Earl Grays I've found at the fanciest tea shops around here taste like crap to me; sort of like the bergamot was overripe or something. I don't know if I just have a miseducated palate, but I like the old-fashioned Turkish Earl Gray they sell at the local foreign foods place (specifically, Bill's Imported Foods) for something like twelve bucks a pound.

So: do organic tea growers have yet to get Earl Gray right, or do i have crap taste in tea?

Also, on a related note: am I right to be worried about pesticide use on tea, or how common of a practice is this?

I have a love-hate relationship with the interwebs, so I can be a sporadic poster; prone to lurking. Also, I have a 1-year old daughter and I'm in the middle of a career and geographical change, so I will be drinking a lot more tea than posting about it.